in one of my videos i talked about a very common problem i can understand but i cannot speak but while i was reading the comments i came across this one i can speak but i cannot understand so in this video i'm going to teach you the best way to improve your listening skill through english podcasts hello my name is maddie from poc english lessening is a very crucial skill especially if you want to be able to communicate effectively one of the best ways to improve your listening skill is by listening to english podcasts but what
podcasts and how to listen to them english podcasts are available for different levels and with different accents so two questions you need to ask yourself is what is my level and what is my favorite accent do i want to learn the american accent or the british accent based on your answers to these two questions you can choose the right podcast so first of all what is your level well you should consider two different levels below intermediate level or above the intermediate level which one are you if you belong to the first group whose level of
english is below the intermediate level you should not worry about the accent so forget about the accent first of all you should focus on improving your general understanding and listening skill for you i recommend this website lessonaminute.com on this website you can find one minute english podcasts about almost any topic you think of and the topics are categorized alphabetically for instance let's go to one of the topics paper there you can see the one minute audio file and the written script you can also download the audio file if you like plus you can download the
script in a pdf file format this website is amazing for those who are below the intermediate level especially for the beginners but how should you listen to the podcasts on this website stick to the end of this video i'm going to teach you alright time for the second group those whose level of english is above the intermediate level for you accent is actually important because by listening to podcasts not only you improve your lessening skill and general understanding but you can also improve your accent and pronunciation using the imitation technique or the speech shadowing technique
i'm going to link a video up here so you can click on it in this video i talked about improving your pronunciation using the speech shadowing technique so if you are above the intermediate level and you are interested in the british accent i recommend bbc 6 minute english podcasts this is the official website where you can find the six-minute english podcast of bbc you can also see the level intermediate i'm going to put the link to this website down in the descriptions of this video how does it work well you have a wide choice of
topics so you can read the topics and see which one you like click on the one you like and then you can see the audio and the pdf files there so basically you can play the podcast from inside the website or you can download the audio of the podcast together with the pdf file of the script what about the american accent lovers like me well the best option for you is voa this is voa learning english and voa stands for voice of america and we are talking about the american accent right on this website you
can find podcasts for different levels beginning intermediate or advanced levels we're talking about the intermediate level we click on it and then you can see there are four options here available health and lifestyle science and technology art and culture as it is you click on your favorite area and then you can see a lot of podcasts available you can also click on load more and then there they are let's click on one and see what happens well we have the audio file we can play we can also download the audio file here and the text
and the script of the audio file is right below it so let's sum up the first part of this lesson if you are below the intermediate level go to lessonaminute.com that's where you should start from if you are above the intermediate level and you like the british accent bbc's six-minute english is for you and if you are into the american accent then voa is the best option okay now that we know what podcast you can use time for second question how can we lessen two podcasts in order to improve our listening if you want to
improve your listening through podcasts you have to follow these three steps step one is to lessen don't worry about anything you don't have to understand 100 of what they are saying you don't have to take notes just listen the important thing is that your ears are getting used to the sounds you're hearing and that you can get the gist of the story what is going on who are the main speakers what is the topic of the podcast that's enough and the good part about the first step is that you can do it anywhere you can
listen to podcasts while you were sitting down or maybe while you were doing the dishes you can also listen to podcasts while you are walking on the street or maybe you are waiting for the bus or you know you can listen to it anywhere you want and as many times as you need step 2 lesson and write down now listen guys this step might take a lot of time but trust me there is no shortcut in learning you need to spend time so do it and don't be lazy what you need to do here is
to listen to the podcast pause after each sentence and write down what you heard so basically you're going to write down the script of the podcast maybe sometimes you don't understand what they are saying pause go back lesson again again if you need you can go back and listen again do this as many times as you need in order to understand what the podcast the speaker is saying so that you can write it down what if i don't understand what they are saying well in that case if you couldn't understand what they are saying after
a few times of playing it and listening to it then just leave it blank and continue with the rest of the podcast alright by the end of this step you will write down the script of the podcast what is step three lesson and follow the original script whether you listen to voa or bbc podcasts the script is available in a pdf file format so what you need to do is to download that file play the podcast and while you are listening to the podcast follow the script this time you will understand what they are saying
a hundred percent now and step four the final step is to compare your script to the original script to see which parts you have made a mistake which parts you couldn't get and which parts you left blank this exercise takes a lot of time guys but trust me you will see immediate results plus not only it improves your listening you can also learn some new vocabulary so basically you're killing two birds with one stone and to kill two birds with one stone means to achieve two things by doing one thing i hope you've enjoyed this
lesson if you want to receive the summary of every video lesson i post on youtube in one pdf file each time i post what you need to do is to go to my website pocenglish.com the link is down in the descriptions click on the link go to my website type in your email address and click subscribe see
